KR101182034B1 - Method, system and computer-readable recording medium for changing image of game character - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, a system and a computer readable recording medium for changing an image of a game character. According to an aspect of the present invention, a user terminal apparatus is provided with a game character image change program module for transmitting a search clue input by a user and a search request corresponding thereto to change an image of a game character to an image search server. And providing information about a search result according to the search clue at the image search server by the game character image change program module to the user terminal device. When selecting one of a plurality of images included in the search result by using the information on the result, the method for changing the image of the game character, characterized in that the selected image is used as the image of the game character do.

Description

METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM FOR CHANGING IMAGE OF GAME CHARACTER}

The present invention relates to a method, a system and a computer readable recording medium for changing an image of a game character.

Avatar is a term that means division or incarnation, and it is derived from the word that used to refer to the incarnation of the god who came down to earth from ancient India. Recently, avatars are frequently used to refer to virtual characters such as people, animals, and objects controlled by a user in a computer game executed in cyberspace.

Conventional avatars are usually composed of 2D picture images and have a fixed appearance. However, in recent years, 2D avatars or 3D avatars are worn by users, for example, by wearing pretty clothes (hereinafter, corresponding images) or wearing accessories. It can be made to change the shape of the hair, or to change the shape of the hair, so that you can have a variety of images. In addition, since the 3D avatar provides not only the front image but also the side image or the back image to the user, the 3D avatar can express the facial expression, emotion, and movement of the avatar more delicately than the 2D avatar.

In the Internet game field, which has a strong user base, or social network service (SNS) games, which are growing rapidly, avatars representing people, animals, objects, and the like in a game controlled by a user are widely used. Such an avatar can be viewed as a kind of game character into which a user's emotion is embodied in the game. These kinds of game characters are very diverse, and there are not only characters having the appearance of characters but also characters having the appearance of animals, cars, airplanes, and the like.

However, as these various game characters are used, the user wants to express various game characters according to his or her preferences in addition to those provided by the side providing the game service (for example, an operator providing an internet game service). I had a desire. In other words, the user has a desire to use various images, for example, images of people, animals, cars, etc., which are preferred by the user for the game characters controlled by the user. It is not enough to meet the needs.

The object of the present invention is to solve all the problems of the prior art described above.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to enable the user to easily change the image of the game character to a specific image desired by the user.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a user with various candidate images in response to a request for the user to replace the game character's image with a specific image in real time.

In order to accomplish the above object, a representative structure of the present invention is as follows.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a game character image changing program module for transmitting a search clue input by a user and a corresponding search request to an image search server to change an image of a game character in a user terminal device is played. In the step of receiving from the character image changing system, and during the game play on the user terminal device to start the game character image changing program module to display a search window on the game screen, input the search clue and the search request And displaying a plurality of images corresponding to a search result according to the search clue from the image search server on the game screen. When the user selects one of the plurality of images, the selected image is displayed. A method for changing the image of a game character, characterized in that used as the image of the game character is provided.

delete

According to another aspect of the present invention, a game character image search system including an image search unit that provides a game character image change program module for changing an image of a game character, and if a search request is received together with a search clue, Receiving an image search server for providing a plurality of images corresponding to a search result, and the game character image changing program module and starting the game character image changing program module while playing a game to display a search window on a game screen; And a user terminal device configured to display the plurality of images corresponding to a search result according to the search clue on the game screen when the search clue is input and the search request is made. majority When one of the images is selected, the system is provided for changing the image of the game character, wherein the selected image is used as the image of the game character.

In addition, there is further provided a computer readable recording medium for recording another method for implementing the present invention, another system, and a computer program for executing the method.

According to the present invention, the user can easily change the image of the game character to a specific image desired by the user.

In addition, according to the present invention, the user can respond in real time to the request to replace the image of the game character with a specific image, it is possible to provide a variety of candidate images to the user.

1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an entire system for changing an image of a game character according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the game character image change system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3A to 3C are views illustrating a process of changing an image of a game character on a game screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present invention are different, but need not be mutually exclusive. For example, certain shapes, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented with changes from one embodiment to another without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that the location or arrangement of individual components within each embodiment may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention should be construed as encompassing the scope of the appended claims and all equivalents thereof. In the drawings, like reference numbers designate the same or similar components throughout the several views.

Hereinafter, various preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily implement the present invention.

[Preferred Embodiment of the Present Invention]

In the present specification, a game may be a video game, an arcade game, a first- or third-person shooting game, a racing game, a role playing game, a strategy simulation game, an MMORPG game (large multi-user online role playing game), It is a generic term for various games such as casual games, dance games, flash games, and the like, and games that may be configured to include at least two of them. Preferably, the game of the present invention may be an SNS game.

In addition, in the present specification, the search clue refers to information that has a predetermined identifying power or information extracting power as a basis and can be used as a basis for searching for information through a communication network. , A keyword (including a combination of two or more keywords), a category, a time condition (eg, an information generation date or a date when the information is posted), and the like.

Configuration of the entire system

1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an entire system for changing an image of a game character according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a communication network 100, a game providing server 200, a game character image changing system 300, and a user terminal device 400. have.

First, the communication network 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be configured regardless of communication modes such as wired and wireless, and may include a local area network (LAN) and a metropolitan area network (MAN). And a wide area network (WAN). Preferably, the communication network 100 as used herein may be a known Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). However, the communication network 100 may include, at least in part, a known wired and wireless data communication network, a known telephone network, or a known wired and wireless television communication network without being limited thereto.

Next, the game providing server 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention transmits a game client program for a game to be played by the user to the user terminal device 400, and the corresponding game on the user terminal device 400. It can perform a function of providing a game service for the execution of. Here, the game providing server 200 may be configured to include a game character image change system 300 to be described later, or may be configured physically independent of this. The game providing server 200 may be linked with a predetermined game database (not shown) for providing a game client program and a game service.

Next, the game character image change system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention, the image to replace the image of the game character in response to a user's request to play the game on the user terminal device 400 communication network 100 ), And display information about the search result on the game screen, and when the user selects an arbitrary image using the information on the displayed search result, the image replaces the image of the existing game character. It may be a system.

The game character image changing system 300 is configured to interoperate with another web site (not shown) or another web page (not shown) or an operation server of a dedicated web site for the above service. The server may be a predetermined server hosting a game character image change program module installed in the user terminal device 400. Detailed configurations and functions of the game character image changing system 300 will be described later.

Next, the user terminal device 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a game character image change program hosted by the game providing server 200, the game character image change system 300, the game character image change system 300 A digital device capable of communicating with another web site or other web page that interacts with the module and / or an image search server (not shown), described below, comprising: a desktop computer, notebook computer, workstation, PDA, web pad, mobile phone As long as a digital device having a memory means and a microprocessor equipped with a computing power can be adopted as the user terminal device 400 according to the present invention.

Finally, the image search server performs a search based on the search clues captured according to the intervention of the game character image changing system 300 and transmits the search result to the user through the game character image changing system 300 or by itself. It may be a server for providing. Such image retrieval server may preferably include components such as a search engine of an Internet portal site. Of course, the image search server may be at least part of the operational server of the Internet portal site.

Composition of Game Character Image Change System

Hereinafter, the internal configuration of the game character image changing system 300 performing important functions for the implementation of the present invention and the function of each component will be described.

2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the game character image change system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the game character image change system 300 of the present invention may include an image search unit 310, a character image change unit 320, a communication unit 330, and a controller 340. have. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the image search unit 310, the character image changing unit 320, the communication unit 330 and the control unit 340 is at least a part of the user terminal device 400, the image search server and And / or a program module that communicates with a server on another web site or on another web page. Such a program module may be included in the game character image changing system 300 in the form of an operating system, an application module, or other program modules, and may be physically stored in various known storage devices. In addition, such a program module may be stored in a remote storage device that can communicate with the game character image change system 300. On the other hand, such program modules include, but are not limited to, routines, subroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or execute particular abstract data types, described below, in accordance with the present invention.

First, the image search unit 310 according to an embodiment of the present invention receives a search clue according to a user input from the user terminal device 400, and the image search server searches for various images corresponding to the search clue. Starting an image search server to provide information about a result (for example, a URL of a search result page including various images) and receiving the information about the search result and transmitting the information about the search result to the user terminal device 400 or the search. Information about the result may be directly transmitted to the user terminal device 400.

On the other hand, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the search clue input from the user terminal device 400 may be directly transmitted to the image search server. In particular, in this case, the game character image changing program module may directly send the search request to the image search server together with the search clue. Here, the game character image changing program module may be a widget, a toolbar, another ActiveX program, or the like, which may be provided from the image search unit 310 to the user terminal device 400. Of course, such a game character image change program module may be freely configured and used as long as it performs a function of transmitting information about a search result corresponding to a user's search clue to the user terminal device 400.

In the above embodiments, the search clue input by the user may relate to a game character image to be substituted, desired by the user. For example, if the user is playing a role-playing game, the user may enter the name of a specific person in order to change the image of the person character in his role (eg, the face image of the person character). You can request a search for an image of the person by directly inputting on the image. In another example, when the user is playing a car racing game, the user may directly enter a brand name of a specific vehicle model on the game screen to search for the image of the vehicle model in order to change the image of the car character under his control. You can request The user can then use the information about the search results provided by the image search server to select a particular image (e.g., click on the URL to open a search results page and click on the specific image therein). ).

Next, the character image changing unit 320 according to an embodiment of the present invention transmits the information on the image itself or the image selected by the user (for example, the image URL) to the game providing server 200 or the user terminal. By transmitting to the game character image change program module of the device 400, the existing game character image may be replaced with the selected image. Of course, if necessary, the game character image changing program module limits the function of the character image changing unit 320 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the game character image changing program module acquires information on the selected image itself or the image directly, and then the image of the game character. It can also be configured to make changes.

In connection with the above embodiment, as a technique for changing the image of the game character during the execution of the game, the technique described in the specification (name of the invention: the method of changing the game character face in the game system) of Korean Patent No. 859315 Reference may be made (the content of the above specification should be considered to be incorporated herein in its entirety). Of course, the technique of changing the image of the game character applicable to the present invention is not limited to the technique described in the above specification, and may be implemented by applying various other known techniques.

3A to 3C are views illustrating a process of changing an image of a game character on a game screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

First, the user can start a game character image change program module by performing a predetermined operation while playing a car racing game. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 3A, a search window for receiving a user's search clue may be displayed on the game screen. The user can enter "Sonata" as a search clue in this search window.

Then, the user may be provided with the URL of the page of the search result according to the search clue. The user may click on the provided URL and receive a corresponding image of various “Sonata” cars on the game screen, as shown in FIG. 3B. Of course, such an image may be displayed separately from the game screen and displayed in another window displayed on the game screen.

Finally, when a user clicks on one of the provided images (an image of "NF Sonata" according to the example shown), the game character image changer module detects these user clicks and uses that image to change the image of the game character. Can be. An example of an image of a modified game character is shown in FIG. 3C.

Next, the communication unit 330 according to an embodiment of the present invention may perform a function of enabling data transmission / reception from / to the image search unit 310 and the character image changing unit 320.

Finally, the controller 340 according to an embodiment of the present invention may perform a function of controlling the flow of data between the image search unit 310, the character image changing unit 320, and the communication unit 330. That is, the controller 330 according to the present invention controls the flow of data from / to the outside or between each component of the game character image changing system 300, so that the image searching unit 310 and the character image changing unit The control unit 320 and the communication unit 330 may control to perform unique functions, respectively.

Embodiments according to the present invention described above can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer components and recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium may include program commands, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. Program instructions recorded on the computer-readable recording medium may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, and magneto-optical media such as floptical disks. medium) and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device may be modified with one or more software modules to perform the processing according to the present invention, and vice versa.

Although the present invention has been described by specific matters such as specific components and limited embodiments and drawings, it is provided only to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and changes from this description.

Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the above-described embodiments, and all ranges that are equivalent to or equivalent to the claims of the present invention as well as the claims .

100: Network
200: game serving server
300: game character image change system
310: image search unit
320: character image changing unit
330: communication unit
340: control unit
400: user terminal device

Claims (10)

Receiving a game character image changing program module from the game character image changing system for transmitting a search clue input by the user and a corresponding search request to the image search server in order to change the image of the game character in the user terminal device. , And
While playing the game on the user terminal device, the game character image changing program module is started to display a search window on a game screen, when the search clue is input and the search request is made, the image search server according to the search clue is displayed. Displaying a plurality of images corresponding to a search result on the game screen
Including,
And when the user selects one of the plurality of images, the selected image is used as the image of the game character. delete The method of claim 1,
The game is a method for changing the image of the game character, characterized in that the SNS game. The method of claim 1,
And wherein the game character is at least one of a person, an animal, and an object controlled in the game by the user. The method of claim 1,
The search results are
And a URL to a search results page for the plurality of images. A game character image retrieval system having an image retrieval unit providing a game character image change program module for changing an image of a game character,
An image search server that provides a plurality of images corresponding to a search result according to the search clue if a search request is received together with the search clue;
The game character image change program module is provided, the game character image change program module is activated while playing a game to display a search window on a game screen, and the image search server is input when the search clue is input and the search request is made. A user terminal device for displaying the plurality of images corresponding to the search result according to the search clue on the game screen,
And if the user selects one of the plurality of images, the selected image is used as the image of the game character. The method of claim 6,
The game is a system for changing the image of the game character, characterized in that the SNS game. The method of claim 6,
And the game character is at least one of a person, an animal, and an object controlled in the game by the user. The method of claim 6,
The search results are
And a URL to a search results page for the plurality of images. A computer-readable recording medium for recording a computer program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

Images